Nurtured
by HeathenVampires
Summary: Modern AU. He knows these aren't the kind of feelings they should have for her. That doesn't seem to stop them. Valcupret Hiccup/Valka/Eret three shot (warning for incest)
1. Chapter 1

**One of those prompts I had lying around a while, always meaning to write and going "when I have the time", but I never _have _the time so I gotta make the time.**

**Valka/Hiccup + Hiccup/Valka/Eret. Warning for (adoptive) incest.**

-HTTYD-

Woken by his bladder, Eret grumbled about having to leave his cosy bed as he reluctantly slipped from between the covers and stretched, yawning in to his hand before he padded out into the hallway, heading for the bathroom. He thought he heard something, but it didn't quite register in his tired brain when the main thought was the urgency of getting to the toilet. Sighing in relief, Eret rinsed his hands after he was done, stepping back out into the hall.

And he _definitely _heard something then.

He took a few steps, straining his ears as his brain was still kicking back in. Eret rubbed his eyes as though that would help, edged closer to Valka's bedroom door, which was ever so slightly ajar. His eyes went wide when he realised what the sounds were, low moans and panting, gasping breaths.

Well, Valka was a grown woman. She was allowed to have... relationships, Eret quickly told himself and made to hurry past. A surprising voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Quiet down, you'll wake Eret!"

Mouth hanging open, Eret slowly moved closer, as though he'd hear something to reassure him he hadn't heard _who _he just heard.

"Oh Hiccup, don't stop!"

Nope, no such luck. Frozen to the spot, Eret heard conversation cease to be replaced with Valka moaning again, soft whimpers and creaking mattress springs and...

Eret tore himself away and all but _ran _back to his room, heart pounding as he closed his door behind him. They were... Hiccup was in there... gods, _how?_

For all intents and purposes, Valka was their mother, and Hiccup was his brother. She'd been their foster parent for about a year - both had grown up in the system since childhood, made friends in their early teens and tried to stay together as much as possible - before filing to adopt the two of them. They didn't call her 'mom', but still, she was their mother legally.

And yet Eret had definitely just heard the two of them in bed together. Quite consensually and rather happily, if her begging him not to stop was a hint. Shaking, Eret climbed back in to bed and hoped it all turned out to be a weird and wild dream so he wouldn't have to deal with it. Especially the strange warmth budding low in his stomach at the images that rose, unbidden, to his mind.

Next morning, Eret immediately looked in Hiccup's room. His door was ajar, and his brother was asleep almost completely face down in his pillow. It was almost an entirely reassuring image that whatever he _thought _he heard last night was just a slightly disturbing dream. Except for the fact Hiccup was sleeping topless, and Eret could see red lines down his back, as though someone had gripped him tight and dragged their nails over his skin. Hiccup didn't have a girlfriend, and he definitely hadn't left the house at all the day before.

_Fuck._

He headed downstairs and found Valka - their _mother, _he remembered (even if apparently, Hiccup didn't!) - puttering around the kitchen, usually awake early. Despite her apparently late night...

"Morning Eret."

"Morning."

"Would you like a hot drink?"

Eret nodded stiffly, trying not to stare. She'd want to know what was going on, and Eret wasn't sure how he'd explain what he heard, what he thought. He couldn't ignore her happy mood, some part of him relieved that she wasn't downtrodden, sad. That whatever it was going on in her room last night, it didn't seem to be something that _hurt_ her.

She put a coffee down in front of him a few minutes later, exactly how he liked it. Eret thanked her quietly, hearing footsteps upstairs that signalled Hiccup rising for the day. Hiding his face in his mug, Eret couldn't help but watch Hiccup enter the room, t-shirt covering those marks he'd seen earlier. He looked, tried to see something that said there was more to their relationship. They smiled at each other, but that alone wasn't exactly scandalous or suspect. They smiled at him too, after all.

"You going for a run this morning Eret?"

"Tryna get rid of me?"

Hiccup grinned, nodding as he thanked Valka for his drink.

"Absolutely, I wanna turn your room into a giant ball pit. No, idiot, you always want a shower when you get back and I wanna know if you're gonna vanish for like, an hour or not."

"Oh. Uh. Yeah, probably. You could always come with me."

His brother snorted with laughter.

"_Pass. _Knowing my luck I'd jar my leg and you would have to carry me back."

"You can't use your leg as an excuse forever. One day your metabolism is gonna catch up with you."

Hiccup waved him off, already moving to root in the fridge. Sure, Eret didn't know how it felt to have a prosthetic limb, but he _did _know people still went running with them.

"Yeah, yeah. Go be health conscious somewhere else."

Quietly watching them as she stirred her tea, Valka said nothing but now Eret knew what he knew, he couldn't help but think - _were they waiting for him to go, hoping to be alone? _

Those thoughts didn't stop as he went for his run either, mind turning it all over and over. When did they start? _How _did they start? How long had it gone on for? Hiccup had turned eighteen over a year ago, but they had lived with her for three years before that. Eret felt sure Valka wasn't the type to have groomed him as a teen, but Hiccup was basically his little brother, and so Eret felt a surge of protectiveness at the idea.

But how would he find out? He couldn't exactly _ask, _as then Eret would have to admit what he heard, and he was pretty sure they'd deny anything was going on if he _did _bring it up.

By the time Eret looped around and got home, he was confused and half-expected to walk in on something, as though now he was aware they'd suddenly stop hiding it - which clearly, they had been doing. Last night hadn't been the first time, he was sure. There was nothing - Hiccup was in his room, and Valka getting ready for work, pouring coffee in to her travel mug.

"Have a good day Eret."

"Thanks, you too."

Eret headed upstairs, showered and dressed. It was just him and Hiccup. He _could _have tried asking...

but he didn't. He wasn't sure what he'd even say... "are you banging our mother?" seemed a bit... _forward, _but it was hardly something Eret could phrase delicately. Even if he was the type who _could _phrase things delicately. Which he wasn't, really.

He sat in bed that night, deciding he had to be sure it wasn't all just a vivid hallucination. He was known for being able to sleep anywhere, dropping off at the drop of a hat. Still, Eret laid down and pulled the blanket up over him when the house started to get quiet, pinching his arm periodically to keep himself awake. It took about twenty minutes after he'd said goodnight to Hiccup and Valka for him to hear footsteps in the hall, slow and careful.

He'd left his door slightly ajar intentionally, and did his best not to move much when it opened a little. Seemingly satisfied Eret was out for the count, the steps continued to Valka's room until they faded into silence. Heart pounding in his chest, Eret sat up, rubbing his arm where it was red from pinching himself awake. Had this been going on _every _night? For how long?

Neither his door nor Valka's appeared to be closed, and Eret realised that already, he could hear the sounds of them moving around on her bed. He tried to argue with himself, but ended up creeping along the hall, and again he heard what was hard to mistake, moans and gasps and the creak of the mattress. Eret listened longer than was strictly necessary to make sure of what was going on, as though it would suddenly stop and he would wake in his bed from a very strange dream.

"You didn't close the door Hiccup!"

"I know. I didn't close Eret's either."

Valka let out a long sigh, though she didn't sound upset in any way.

"Why?"

Hiccup chuckled, the sound of skin meeting skin and springs under weight followed by sharp, low groans all occurring before he answered.

"I like a little risk. He sleeps like the dead anyway, stop worrying."

He shouldn't be listening still. Eret made to turn and walk away, but in his haste he overshot it and knocked his knee against the wall. He grunted in pain before realising the sounds from Valka's room had stopped, and nobody seemed to breathe for a good minute before Valka's voice echoed out in to the hallway.

"Eret?"

-HTTYD-

**Hmm, I wonder where this could possibly go...**


	2. Chapter 2

**I didn't forget about this, I just... got stuck. Happens a lot more than I admit to, and I didn't want to force this lil fic, but got a couple of reviews on it recently and I was feeling the vibe at last!**

-HTTYD-

Even _if _he'd had growing suspicions, it was _very_ different to having it outright and absolutely confirmed for him. Seeing Hiccup in nothing but his pyjama bottoms, followed by Valka wearing what Eret was quite sure was nothing _but _her dressing gown, guilt on her face and defiance on Hiccup's.

They were all completely silent for a minute or two, them unwilling to start and Eret clueless what to say.

But then, that had never stopped him before.

"What the _fuck?"_

Perhaps not the gentlest way to start a conversation, but then it was hardly a gentle topic.

"Not really sure what you want us to say. I'm not gonna apologise."

"She's basically our mother!"

Valka winced, and Eret quickly realised he needed to calm down; he cared deeply for both of them, and Valka had been _nothing _but good to him ever since she adopted the two of them years ago. So he'd give them a chance to speak _before _he potentially got angry...

"I don't see her that way."

"Clearly."

Eret and Hiccup seemed to square off silently, staring at each other as Hiccup waited for whatever Eret was going to do. Eret wasn't entirely sure _what _he wanted to do, other than wind time back to before he _knew._

"Valka, can I talk to Hiccup alone?"

She hesitated, looking between the two of them several times before Hiccup placed a hand on her arm, offered her what Eret supposed was meant to be a reassuring smile.

"It's fine, don't worry."

As though it wasn't the _weirdest _thing in the damn world, Hiccup actually dared lean over and kiss Valka. She seemed reticent to respond in front of Eret even when he averted his gaze, but Hiccup didn't say anything about it, watching her walk slow and nervous to her bedroom.

"Seriously?"

Eret gave his... brother a disapproving look. Hiccup shrugged, face impassive.

"What? Not like it was a surprise anymore."

Hiccup gestured toward his own bedroom, and Eret went. For all his calm affect tried to say otherwise, Eret could tell when his brother was a little nervous. And he definitely was, if the twitch in his hands and the tight set of his still-bare shoulders were any indication.

"Alright. I repeat... _what the fuck?_"

Eret asked, unable to hold back, and Hiccup rolled his shoulders in a shrug.

"What do you want from me?"

"Answers. An explanation. Reassurance that this hasn't been secretly going on for years."

"Wha- oh. No. Not even a year. And I'm gonna forget you _ever _implied otherwise about her."

Hiccup was clearly defensive of Valka - and in fairness, Eret's words could have been taken to imply Valka had taken advantage of him as a teenager, but according to Hiccup, nothing went on before he was an adult.

"I had to be sure. I'm pissed, but you're still my brother and I needed to know she didn't... hurt you."

"Then rest assured. If anything, I had to convince _her. _She had a lot of the same... reservations you did, but it was... gods, I love her. So much."

Green eyes took on a dreamy gaze for a minute, and Eret couldn't help but believe him.

"But... _how? _She's our mother."

"I know that here, I guess" Hiccup tapped his head "and when I look at our adoption forms, part of me knows its weird. But here" Hiccup splayed a hand over his heart "all I know is I love her more than I can say, and we make each other happy. We never expected you to be thrilled about it, but... do you think you could accept that we're happy?"

Gone was the swagger and calm certainty, in its place his occasionally anxious brother with a somewhat imploring tone.

"Why do you care what _I _think?"

Hiccup blinked, looking at Eret like he'd grown an extra head.

"Why... you're my brother, idiot. And Valka... she'd be heartbroken if you, I don't know, left or stopped speaking to her."

Eret shrugged.

"I can't guarantee I won't leave, but I'd never stop speaking to her."

"Why would you leave?"

"Cus... I feel weird knowing you two are..."

He made a crude gesture, and Hiccup rolled his eyes.

"So don't think about it."

"How can I not? Especially when _someone _intentionally leaves doors open."

Hiccup had the good grace to look a _little_ sheepish at that.

"That... never mind. I won't do that again. I... I don't want you to go. I like having you around. So does Valka."

"Hiccup, you can't just confess to banging our mother and then drop a 'are we still family' at the end like nothing happened."

His brother sighed, shoulders slumping.

"Fine. Anything else? I don't see why this bothers you so much anyway!"

"You _don't_ see why this bothers me?"

"No. Not unless you have some weird jealousy thing going on. We've-"

Eret cut him off.

"I'm not jealous!"

He wasn't. Was he?

"Then what's the big deal? We're not gonna fuck in front of you."

Eret shook his head, refusing to let the images Hiccup's words inspired take root in his brain.

"I don't need to hear this! Gods!"

Eret turned and left, going back to his room, doing his best not to look at the panicked eyes of Valka peering out of her bedroom door, obviously waiting for the fallout.

He _wasn't _jealous!

Or if he was, and that was a big _if, _it was definitely not because Hiccup was bedding Valka. Maybe in some kind of deep, insecure way that he'd sometimes worried Valka had a favourite of the two of them, and that favourite wasn't _Eret. _

But then again, if _that _was how she treated Hiccup, maybe Eret didn't want to be her favourite.

Or did he?

_Nope. _Groaning, Eret rubbed his face and acknowledged he was too tired for all that, crawling back in to bed and doing his best not to think of anything. It didn't really work, especially when he heard Valka's bedroom door close and had the sneaking suspicion it was Hiccup closing it behind him. Still, he managed to get to a blissfully dreamless sleep.

-HTTYD-

**I had _all_ the plans for this chapter, and none of them came out right. So I'm hoping that this assures everyone I haven't forgotten the fic, and I will probably bump the expected chapters up from 3 to 5... just as soon as my brain lets me write it.**


End file.
